BATTLEFIELDS DESECRATED.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18218, 31 October 1924, Page 13

BATTLEFIELDS DESECRATED.

DIGGING FOE METAL IN FRANCE. (BY CAULS—PBESS ASSOCIATION— COPTBIOHT) (austbalux axd y.z. cable association) PAKIS, October 29. A scandalous state of affairs has been revealed in tba war zone. As a return To The agricultural use of soil on some battlefields is impossible, the Government leased to contractors the right to search the battlefields for metal. Lessees have been employing hundreds of workmen of nil nationalities, including Poles, Portuguese, Arabs, and Chinese, to seek lor buried steel, iron, and copper. Purine the search the skeletons of Jbijllish" French. Italian, and German soldiers were dug up and earclcssly tlung aside after everything ot value had been taken. The searchers are paid in accordance with ihe .-.mount of metal they find. Thus two Arabs found several tons of shell eases, for which they received 10000 francs. The Arabs spent 2000 francs within a .lay gambling in cabarets. The Government pays a premium ot two francs for each body discovered. This is too little to prevent the ghouls looting the dead. A sea renin" enquiry has been ordered. ;:nd already several arrests have been made.